52.

MONTEJO V COMELEC
GR 118702 March 15, 1995

CIRILO ROY G. MONTEJO, petitioner, vs.

COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, respondent. SERGIO A.F. APOSTOL, intervenor

Puno J, Ponente

Facts:
The province of Leyte, with the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc, is composed of five legislative
districts1. Biliran , located in the third district of Leyte, was made its sub-province by virtue of RA
2141. When the Local Government Code took effect in 1992, the sub-province of Biliran became a
regular province. Consequently, the 8 municipalities of the Third District composed the new province
of Biliran, and the Third District was reduced to 5 municipalities2. To remedy the inequality in the
distribution of inhabitants, the COMELEC held consultation meetings and promulgated Resolution No.
2736. It transferred the municipality of Capoocan of the 2nd District and the municipality of Palompon
of the 4th District to the 3rd District of Leyte.

Petitioner, representing the First District of Leyte, pleads for the annulment of Section 1 of Resolution
No. 2736 of COMELEC on the ground that it violates the principle of equality of representation.
Petitioner also seeks to transfer the municipality of Tolosa from his district to the second district of the
province (represented by Intervenor, Sergio Apostol).

Issue:
Whether or not the COMELEC had the constitutional power to transfer municipalities from one
legislative district to another legislative district.

Ruling:
No. The basic powers of COMELEC, as the enforcer and administrator of the election laws, are
spelled out in Section 2(c), Article IX of the Constitution. The COMELEC relies on the Ordinance
appended to the 1987 Constitution as the source of its power of redistricting which is traditionally
regarded as part of the power to make laws. But based on the deliberations of the Constitutional
Commission, it denied to the COMELEC the major power of legislative apportionment as it itself
exercised the power. Section 2 of the Ordinance only empowered the COMELEC to make minor
adjustments of the reapportionment made. Consistent with the limit of its power to make minor
adjustments, Sec. 3 of the Ordinance did not also give the COMELEC any authority to transfer
municipalities from one legislative district to another district.

It may well be that the conversion of Biliran from a sub-province to a regular province brought about
an imbalance in the distribution of voters and inhabitants in the 5 legislative districts of Leyte. But the
issue involves a problem of reapportionment of legislative districts and petitioner’s remedy lies with
Congress. Section 5(4), Art. VI of the Constitution categorically gives Congress the power to
reapportion, thus: “Within reapportionment of legislative districts based on the standards provided in
this section.”
The Court held that COMELEC committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction
when it promulgated a resolution transferring the municipality of Capoocan of the second district and
the municipality of Palompon of the fourth district to the third district of Leyte.

Dispositive:
Section 1 of COMELEC Resolution No. 2736 is annulled and set aside. The petition praying for the
transfer of the municipality of Tolosa from the 1st District to the 2nd District of Leyte is denied.